on the wing above the rain-swept roof
///
27 June 2022
Pittsfield MA
Category: Massachusetts
eastern red cedar
in a pitched battle
with the parking lot
/ / /
26 June 2022
Pittsfield MA
thirteen geese
one fisherman
& me
*
following a gull’s flight
around the edges of the lake
where is the center of the universe?
*
worm in mouth
a robin hops by; the wind
knocks over my bottle
*
moonset over the pines
the lone buoy
lists to the north
/ / /
20 June 2022
Pontoosuc Lake
Pittsfield MA
the very top
of the Poet’s Seat:
below, just a town
/ / /
19 June 2022
Pittsfield MA
at the end of this line, a saxophone!
/ / /
18 June 2022
Lowell MA
(written in front of
Jack Kerouac’s birthplace)
he looked through
this missing windshield
as the wave broke over the bow
/ / /
17 June 2022
Provincetown MA
a rare June snowfall
through the open van door
cottonwoods
/ / /
14 June 2022
Pittsfield MA
Hand-me-downs
The first time I breathed in air,
it was the air of Pittsfield.
My mother took her first lungful
in the same town, as did
my grandfather before her.
I walk from city hall
to the Indian restaurant,
next door to where my grandma
worked in the beauty salon,
although the salon and the
entire department store that housed it
are no more than distant memories,
sand castles swept away
by the tide of urban renewal.
I walk another block past my grandpa’s
high school; I wore his graduation ring
on my pinkie for years,
marveling at his small hands.
My own hands are too big now.
It no longer fits.
/ / /
6 June 2022
Pittsfield MA
the pickle is wrapped
in wax paper
but my napkin is wet
/ / /
2 June 2022
Pittsfield MA
back in the lot
the solitude
settles in quickly
/ / /
30 May 2022
Pittsfield MA
sparrows in the trash
breeze moves the bushes
my towel is nearly dry
/ / /
24 May 2022
Pittsfield MA